Apartment complex office fire quelled

Fire did not touch residential units at Mishawaka facility.

Fire did not touch residential units at Mishawaka facility.

February 07, 2006|ERIN MILLER and YONIKA WILLIS Tribune Staff Writers

MISHAWAKA -- A routine maintenance operation may have sparked a fire at an apartment complex Monday morning. JR Crist, a groundskeeper at River Point Apartments, 350 Bercado Circle, said maintenance crews were taking out shelves in the complex's leasing office and burning some wood in the office's wood-burning stoves about 10:30 a.m. After smelling smoke, Crist said, he went outside and saw that there was much more smoke than usual and the chimney was on fire. That's when he ordered everyone out of the building, and 911 was called. Crews were working in the area to install a fitness facility, Crist said. The fire was extinguished a little after 11 a.m., and no one was injured. Mishawaka Fire Prevention Chief Jim Schuster said the fire started inside the chimney. He added that the building has two wood-burning stoves inside and both were in use at the time of the fire. Other employees on the scene declined to discuss the fire with The Tribune. Erica Pike, who lives in a building behind the leasing office, said she heard the fire sirens from her apartment. "When I first came out, I saw a few flames," Pike said, watching the firefighters walking in and out of the still-smoldering building. "Within a few seconds, it was engulfed." Pike said she and her neighbors initially thought their building, on the west side of the complex, was the burning building. Neighbors yelled for residents to leave their apartments before they realized where the smoke had originated. Once outside, Pike could see the firefighters working to extinguish the flames inside the smoke-filled office. "It was beautiful in there" before the blaze, Pike said of the office building. Firefighters said the entire top half of the roof was damaged, and the building itself has both structural and water damage.Staff writer Erin Miller: emiller@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6553 Staff writer Yonika Willis: ywillis@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6556